Inspiring Girl Scout breaks cookie sales record with 18,107 boxes

An Oklahoma girl has broken the all-time national record for Girl Scout cookie sales with 18,107, which shatters the record of 18,000 from the ’80s.

In the interview below, Katie Francis, 12, told The Oklahoman‘s Brandy McDonnell that her goal for the season was 18,100. “There’s three ingredients to selling cookies. There’s lots of time, lots of commitment and I have to ask everybody I see.” Francis says that in previous years she sold 2,004 boxes of cookies, then 7,482 and 12,428 last year. “I’m good at what I do,” Francis continued. “Cookie selling is just so much fun to me. I just love doing it. I love meeting all kinds of people and setting a goal and achieving it.”

Francis says before the sales began, she called around to local restaurants and businesses. She also created a sweepstakes for buying multiple boxes (six and 12) at once with prizes including concert tickets and a night’s stay at a hotel. Francis dislodged Elizabeth Brinton, a.k.a. “The Cookie Queen,” whose record stood for more than 24 years. Brinton, who is from Fairfax, Va., is now a PR exec living in Munich, Germany. Brinton is credited with originating booth-based sales, rather than the standard door-to-door method.